The Quality Assurance Workgroup is looking for three new members. The group nominates, evaluates transcripts for the Exemplary Reference Service Awards and selects the three awards monthly (Detailed Chat, Brief Chat and Teaching Chat). Further, they assist Ask a Librarian staff with monitoring the service for quality control issues. They are a extremely vital in making Ask a Librarian a success. Due to the growing nature of Ask a Librarian, additional members are needed on this workgroup.
The group works in the digital world, primarily via email so there are no meetings to attend.
The Quality Assurance is an excellent way for you to become more involved in the statewide library community and Ask a Librarian.
To apply fill out short application at: here
Applications must be submitted by: October 8, 2007.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
September 19th, 2007
As many of you already know beginning on September 4th, Ask a Librarian will have a two main desks - the Collaborative and an Academic Desk. Below are some frequently asked questions about the the implementation of the new Academic Desk.
1. What is an Academic Desk?
The Academic Desk is an academic queue that will be staffed by academic librarians within Ask a Librarian. As Ask a Librarian has grown, the one queue system has become too busy to staff efficiently. With the academic queue, questions from college students will enter the software from their library’s entry point and enter a separate queue creating two more manageable queues for librarians staffing the desk.
2. Did Ask a Librarian need an Academic Desk?
After the Regional Meetings in 2006, we heard from our participants - “we want an Academic Queue.” In 2006, we formed an Academic Taskforce to evaluate the need and feasibility of a separate queue. The taskforce felt strongly that Ask a Librarian needed a separate queue and it was feasible; therefore, they recommended an Academic Desk begin in the Fall as a pilot project. The desk will officially open on September 4 (The Tuesday after Labor Day).
3. What hours will it be open?
The desk will be open from 10am-4pm EST Monday-Friday starting September 4th. When the academic desk is closed, users will be directed to the general collaborative queue. There are academic libraries staffing the Collaborative Desk during these closed hours.
4. How will users find the desk?
Users will not have to make any conscious decisions about who will help them. The software will route users to the Academic Desk automatically when they enter through their academic institution’s custom portal, unless the institution is currently staffing their local desk or the academic desk is closed. If a local desk is being staffed, users will go to a local queue and if the academic desk is closed, users will go to the collaborative desk.
5. How will staffing work?
Jennifer has created two desk schedules- one for the Collaborative Desk and one for the Academic Desk. These schedules can be viewed within the When to Work software. Using the Display option on the right hand part of the screen, you can view the librarians staffing either the Academic or Collaborative Desk. If you need your login, please contact Jennifer.
6. How do I login to staff the Academic Desk?
The academic desk option will only appear to libraries registered as academic institutions in the software. All colleges, universities and community colleges will be automatically registered. When an academic institution logs in, there will be a new check box ‘Ask a Librarian Academic Desk’. Just check this desk and ‘Enter Live Chat’. It is not recommended to staff more than one desk at a time especially Collaborative and Academic.
7. Cooperation between the Collaborative Desk and the Academic Desk.
Cooperation between libraries is what makes Ask a Librarian a successful program and even with two desks, this needs to continue. Libraries can chat and transfer users between desks using the drop-down menu for ‘Operators by Virtual Desk’ under the Academic Users tab. Please help with desks when asked if one is exceptionally busy and the other slow taking a user would be a great help. Remember to always ask before transferring a user to another librarian. Most important to the success of Ask a Librarian is our customer service and helping users find the best answer possible.
Thank you for all of your efforts to make this expansion of services a success- because of your flexibility with the schedule and your willingness to take extra hours, we are confident the Academic Desk will be a success.
A printable version of these FAQ is available here: ask-a-librarian-academic-desk.pdf
If you have questions or concerns, please contact us immediately.
August 15th, 2007
Great News! We have updated the form for users for the collaborative live chat service.
The form now:
– Requires Zip Code
– Gives more options for user type: Adult, not enrolled in school
College Student
High School Student
Middle School Student
Other
We hope this will help us know a little more about our users without getting too pushy 
Let me know what you think.
June 29th, 2007
Lots of great emails and comments from people uploading avatars into the Ask a Librarian system. Here are a few of the avatars. Let me know if I missed yours!
April 25th, 2007
Have you had a Florida Virtual Library or a Florida Virtual School student user lately? Ask a Librarian has had two very similar desks:
• Florida Virtual Library: Users who come through the generic page (www.askalibrarian.org) without affiliating with a library
• Florida Virtual School: Students from the online Florida Virtual School.
At the fast-paced Ask a Librarian desk it was often hard to differentiate between the two entry points. To help sort out this confusion, we have renamed the main desk to “AaL Collaborative.” An AaL Collaborative user could be anyone, we have approximately 700 unaffiliated users we assist each month.
When you have a AaL Collaborative user, don’t forget you can always ask them their local library if it helps you find the appropriate resources.
April 6th, 2007